Unofficial translation from Russian

PRESS RELEASE

On May 9 there was transmitted to the Third Section of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) a Memorandum of the Representative of the Russian Federation at the ECHR, Pavel Laptev, stating that Russia joins as a third party in complaint case #36376/04 - Kononov vs. Latvia.

The Memorandum reads in part:

"Regarding complaint #36376/04 - Kononov vs. Latvia - I am authorized to inform the European Court of Human Rights that in accordance with item 1 of Article 36 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, in the interests of proper administration of justice, and taking into account the fact that the complainant is a citizen of the Russian Federation, the Russian Federation hereby requests that it be considered a third party in the said complaint and intends to submit a written memorandum and take part in the hearings of this case.

"In addition, the authorities of the Russian Federation request considering applying Rule 41 of the European Court of Human Rights Regulations in this case and that the Kononov complaint versus Latvia be examined as a mater of priority on account of the fact that the complainant is an elderly person born on January 1, 1923."

Russian citizen, Soviet partisan, V. M. Kononov was born in Latvia and was accused by that country's authorities of committing war crimes in the years of the Second World War. In Latvia he was tried for the liquidation in 1944 of nine Latvian Nazi accomplices in the course of a partisan operation. In 2000 Kononov was sentenced to six years imprisonment on a "war crime" charge.

After an additional investigation the Supreme Court of Latvia in 2004 sentenced him on the same change to one year and eight months imprisonment and resolved on freeing him, since by then Kononov had already served the term of punishment imposed on him.

Seeking acquittal, Kononov, having passed through all the Latvian judicial instances, in 2004 applied to the European Court of Human Rights.

Russia's joining in the Kononov vs. Latvia case at the ECHR will enable the Russian side to take an active part in the hearings. The future judgment of the ECHR in Kononov's case is particularly important in view of the policy being pursued by the Latvian authorities of reviewing the results of the Second World War and of prosecuting veterans who fought on the side of the anti-Hitler coalition forces.

May 15, 2006